VMI’s Baucom receives contract extension

VMI head basketball coach Duggar Baucom has received a contract extension through the 2016-2017 season, athletic director Donny White has announced.

Baucom recently guided the Keydets in 2011-12 to their third winning season over the last four years and an appearance in the Big South Championship final game for the third time over the last six seasons. VMI went 17-16 this past year while leading the league in home attendance. Baucom also moved past the career 100-win mark faster than any coach in VMI basketball history, reaching 104 victories this past season, giving him the best winning percentage of any coach in the school modern era and second most victories overall.

Over the last six years, the VMI basketball program under Baucom has also posted more wins (97) than all the military service academies and The Citadel during that time.

“I am very pleased to extend Coach Duggar Baucom’s contract.  He and his coaches have built an extremely competitive program with strong recruiting, an innovative style and excellent coaching,” said White.  “I look forward to more successful seasons with Coach Baucom at the helm.”

Under Baucom, the Keydets have employed a signature fast-paced style of hoops that previously led the nation in Division I scoring for an unprecedented five consecutive years, from 2006-07 through the 2010-11 campaigns.

“I would like to thank Coach White and General Peay for showing faith and commitment to me and my staff on what we continue to build here at the Institute,” said Baucom. “I am fortunate and blessed to be able to coach great kids who believe in what we are trying to accomplish here, academic success in the classroom and competing for championships on the court within our unique military structure.”

Since transitioning to the up-tempo, high-flying system, the VMI record books have undergone a major facelift as 79 school individual, team and facility records and superlatives been rewritten in the Baucom era.

In 2008-09, Baucom also led VMI to a 24-8 mark and a berth in the Big South Conference finals, their second-such berth in three years. The 24 victories were the second-most in school history and the campaign began with a bang when the Keydets knocked off Kentucky, 111-103, in historic Rupp Arena. That victory kick-started an unforgettable campaign that saw the Keydets profiled in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine and the New York Times, along with several other major media outlets. The season saw Baucom honored as the 2009 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) District 3 Coach of the Year, while he was also among 10 finalists for the Hugh Durham Award, given annually to the nation’s top mid-major coach.

VMI players under Baucom have attained all-Conference honors eight times, All- Freshman honors four times, and one has been selected Freshman of the Year while another was picked the conference’s top defender. Reggie Williams, who graduated in 2008 as the school’s all-time leading scorer (2,556 points) after leading the nation in scoring two consecutive years, has played with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and Charlotte Bobcats over the past two seasons.